Natural Symbiosis Research Articles

Independent host- and bacterium-based determinants protect a model symbiosis from phage predation.

SUMMARYBacteriophages (phages) are diverse and abundant constituents of microbial communities worldwide, capable of modulating bacterial populations in diverse ways. Here, we describe the phage HNL01, which infects the marine bacterium Vibrio fischeri. We use culture-based approaches to demonstrate that mutations in the exopolysaccharide locus of V. fischeri render this bacterium resistant to infection by HNL01, highlighting the extracellular matrix as a key determinant of HNL01 infection. Additionally, using the natural symbiosis between V. fischeri and the squid Euprymna scolopes, we show that, during colonization, V. fischeri is protected from phages present in the ambient seawater. Taken together, these findings shed light on independent yet synergistic host- and bacterium-based strategies for resisting symbiosis-disrupting phage predation, and we present important implications for understanding these strategies in the context of diverse host-associated microbial ecosystems.

Seed-borne fungal endophytes constrain reproductive success of host plants under ozone pollution

Tropospheric ozone is among the global change factors that pose a threat to plants and microorganisms. Symbiotic microorganisms can assist plants to cope with stress, but their role in the tolerance of plants to ozone is poorly understood. Here, we subjected endophyte-symbiotic and non-symbiotic plants of Lolium multiflorum, an annual species widely distributed in temperate grasslands, to high and low (i.e., charcoal-filtered air) ozone levels at vegetative and reproductive phases. Exposure to high ozone reduced leaf photochemical efficiency and greenness in both symbiotic and non-symbiotic plants. However, ozone-induced oxidative damage at biochemical level (i.e., lipid peroxidation) was mostly detected in symbiotic plants. Ozone exposure at the vegetative phase did not affect the reproductive investment in seeds, indicating full recovery from stress. Ozone exposure at the reproductive phase reduced biomass and seed production only in symbiotic plants indicating a symbiont-associated cost. At low ozone, endophyte-symbiotic plants showed a steeper slope in the relationship between seed number and seed weight (i.e., a number-weight trade-off) compared to non-symbiotic plants. However, when plants were treated at the reproductive phase, ozone increased the imbalance between seed number and seed weight in both endophyte-symbiotic and non-symbiotic plants. Plants with endophytes at the reproductive stage produced fewer seeds, which were not compensated by increased seed weight. Thus, fungal mycelium growing within ovaries or ozone-induced antioxidant systems may result in costs that finally depress the fitness of plants. Despite ozone pollution could destabilize plant-endophyte mutualisms and render them dysfunctional, other endophyte-mediated benefits (e.g., resistance to herbivory, tolerance to drought) could over-compensate these losses and explain the high incidence of the symbiosis in nature.

The use of unmanned aerial vehicles for forecasting and preventing floods

The paper considers possible aspects of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to predict and prevent dangerous situations associated with floods, waterlogging, and stream rise in the territories of settlements in modern conditions. Besides, a historical analysis of such cataclysms was carried out for the period from 2019 to 2020, which deserves the special attention of scientists. The relevance of the paper is undoubted, since the symbiosis of nature and man gives rise to destructive phenomena against the background of an incorrect interaction of these two units. The paper is divided into 5 main sections, which include: introduction, history of floods, possible use of UAVs in water accidents, and further actions after the work of UAVs is done and the conclusions.

The Effects of Cave Exploration Activity Towards Kilim Geoforest Park, Langkawi, Malaysia

There are many natural geological heritage sites located in Kilim, as the total area of the geoforest consists of karst rock that was formed 500 million years ago. Bat Cave is among the favourite spot for tourists to appreciate and explore geological heritage sites. The Bat Cave is a-200 million years’ minerals formation site and a habitat for thousands of bats in the geoforest area. However, excessive tourism activities have affected various natural resources and wildlife habitat of Kilim Karst Geoforest Park, Langkawi. The Bat Cave is one of the geological sites that is most probably affected by tourism activities. The aim of this paper is to identify local residents and tourists’ opinion in the effects of cave exploration and tourism activities to the habitat of bats and geo-physical characters of the Bat Cave, Kilim Karst Geoforest Park, Langkawi. The methodology employed in this study is based on questionnaire survey with 93% response rate (n=299). Questionnaires were distributed to tourists (65), local residents in Kilim (145) and staff (89) who are in charged in the tourism operation of Kilim Karst Geoforest Park. Findings of this study suggest that tourism activities such as cave exploration and sight-seeing activities caused deterioration towards the physical characteristics of natural resources and habitat of bats in the Bat Cave, Kilim Karst Geoforest Park, Langkawi. This is due to tourists not adhering to a proper procedure (e.g. frequent use of torch light) while exploring the cave. Respondents agree that there is a decline in the numbers of bat population in the cave. The management agency of Kilim Karst Geoforest Park needs to take steps in controlling or reducing the number of tourist arrivals by using tourism carrying capacity approach in order to promote stability. Exceeded population could cause destructions towards the resources. Degradation of natural resources indirectly would distract the natural symbiosis of the ecosystem.

Fungal Endophyte Colonization Patterns Alter Over Time in the Novel Association Between Lolium perenne and Epichloë Endophyte AR37.

Infection of the pasture grass Lolium perenne with the seed-transmitted fungal endophyte Epichloë festucae enhances its resilience to biotic and abiotic stress. Agricultural benefits of endophyte infection can be increased by generating novel symbiotic associations through inoculating L. perenne with selected Epichloë strains. Natural symbioses have coevolved over long periods. Thus, artificial symbioses will probably not have static properties, but symbionts will coadapt over time improving the fitness of the association. Here we report for the first time on temporal changes in a novel association of Epichloë strain AR37 and the L. perenne cultivar Grasslands Samson. Over nine generations, a seed maintenance program had increased the endophyte seed transmission rates to > 95% (from an initial 76%). We observed an approximately fivefold decline in endophyte biomass concentration in vegetative tissues over time (between generations 2 and 9). This indicates strong selection pressure toward reducing endophyte-related fitness costs by reducing endophyte biomass, without compromising the frequency of endophyte transmission to seed. We observed no obvious changes in tillering and only minor transcriptomic changes in infected plants over time. Functional analysis of 40 plant genes, showing continuously decreasing expression over time, suggests that adaptation of host metabolism and defense mechanisms are important for increasing the fitness of this association, and possibly fitness of such symbioses in general. Our results indicate that fitness of novel associations is likely to improve over time and that monitoring changes in novel associations can assist in identifying key features of endophyte-mediated enhancement of host fitness.

The world according to Siderov: the rise of the far-right celebrity politician in Bulgaria

ABSTRACT This article examines Bulgarian politician Volen Siderov’s rise through a career in journalism during communism, into the voice of the opposition during the post-commumist transition, and into the physical embodiment of a particularly virulent strand of far-right rhetoric in the Balkans. Through an analysis of Siderov’ continuing strategic use of media stunts, personal dares and orchestrated political confrontations, I argue that Siderov’s skilful use of populist strategies, dramatic media presence and charismatic engagement – all the while remaining ideologically ambiguous and flip-flopping – allowed him to elevate his status from that of a novice politician to a full-blown celebrity, skilfully blending the two into a most natural symbiosis.

City Parks as a Symbiosis of Culture and Nature (The Case of Parks of the United States of America)

The aim of this study is to learn the specific nature of cooperational process between culture and nature in the city parks of the United States of America drawing on the example of three the most visited parks of country: the Central Park of New York, the Millennium Park in Chicago and the Golden Gate Park in San Francisco.Research methodology.The methodology of this study is based on the use of the basic philosophical method of theoretical analysis. This method is used to study the structure of the cultural space of city parks. It makes possible to collect rich factual material. Finally, a comparative method enabled to assess the issue of the relationship between man, nature and culture within the USA city parks in the spatio-temporal perspective of modern times.Results.The study of the three urban parks discussed above enabled to identify the general trend of strengthening the vector of interaction between man, nature and culture directly in the densest urban areas of modern cities.The article analyzes the composition of basic cultural events that is offered to visitors to parks, an attempt is made to search for criteria of quality of urban culture that are adequate to man and nature. It is found that culture in this case plays the linking role between man and nature by providing the active side of their interaction and creates opportunities for the restoration and harmonization of the inner world of citizens.Novelty. An attempt is made to substantiate the importance of studying the interaction of man, nature and culture in urban park spaces.The practical significance. The research may be used in developing lectures by specialists in cultural studies.

GUT MICROBIOTA GUT MICROBIOTA: SUCCINCT OVERVIEW OF IMPACTS ON HUMAN PHYSIQUE AND CURRENT RESEARCH STATUS WITH FUTURE ASPECTS

A human body is the excellent example of symbiosis in nature. About 10^14 bacteria reside in the human physique as commensal. These microbes make a complex community in entrails is called microbiota. It is estimated that the gut flora is composed more than thousand of different species. These species have various functions in human health and recent research reports on gut microbe’s community those have role in the progress and development of major human disease include cancer, obesity, diabetes, autism, mental depression, hypertension etc. In this review we focused the succinct overview on gut microbe’s origin, behavior, functions, role in major human disease and the current exploration circumstance with next generation perspective.

Hybrid Symbiotic Differential Evolution Moth-Flame Optimization Algorithm for Estimating Parameters of Photovoltaic Models

Obtaining suitable parameters of photovoltaic models based on measured current-voltage data of the PV system is vital for assessing, controlling, and optimizing photovoltaic systems. To acquire specific parameters of photovoltaic models, we proposed a meta-heuristic algorithm named hybrid symbiotic differential evolution moth-flame optimization (HSDE-MFO) algorithm. The proposed algorithm implements our new proposed symbiotic algorithm structure (SAS). This structure is inspired by soybean-rhizobium nodule symbiosis in nature. The proposed SAS divides the population into two parallel working sub-groups, i.e., soybean group and rhizobium group. Soybean group that focuses on exploration is updated by the strategies in the DE algorithm; the rhizobium group that emphasizes on exploitation is renewed by the strategies in the MFO algorithm. Artificial particle selection strategy and artificial flames generation strategy are developed to generate high-quality mutant materials and high-quality flames, respectively. The above-proposed methods balance the exploration ability and exploitation ability and ensure a bionic structure of the proposed algorithm. Moreover, a new elite strategy is developed to offer a chaotic particle to further refine the quality of the current population. The proposed HSDE-MFO is employed to solve the parameters identification problem of photovoltaic models, i.e., single diode, double diode, and photovoltaic module and compared with recently well-established algorithms. Experimental results indicate that HSDE-MFO can acquire precise parameters of the three photovoltaic models and stable performance in 30 independent runs.

Multi-criteria efficiency assessment of international biomass supply chain pathways using Data Envelopment Analysis

Most European countries have committed to ambitious emissions reduction goals. Energy generation in particular is responsible for more than 30% of global emissions, where significant focus has been placed on renewable energy generation, including biomass. On the one hand, there are countries, like the UK, where the biomass stock is insufficient to meet the demand; on the other hand, there are countries, like Brazil, where the stock significantly exceeds the demand. To promote a natural symbiosis, it is necessary to take on the challenge of transporting biomass through long distances in an environmentally and economically efficient manner. This paper aims to assess the efficiency of alternative pathways of international biomass supply-chains. The alternatives involve different biomass origin regions, transportation modes, export ports and processing technologies, including torrefaction. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) has been used for the first time to assess the efficiency of the alternative biomass supply chain pathways in a Latin American context, considering multiple-criteria relating to economic and environmental performance simultaneously, such as the biomass delivered cost, the environmental impact and the fossil energy consumption. Additionally, a sensitivity analysis was performed to analyse the robustness of the results under uncertainty in parameter values. The DEA approach presented can assist the process of planning biomass sourcing and improve decision-making under multiple decision criteria. The results can support medium- and long-term strategic decisions for decision- and policy-makers. • Efficiency assessment of biomass supply chain pathways between Brazil and the UK. • 56 alternative pathways considered with different supply chain structure. • Data Envelopment Analysis used for multi-criteria efficiency assessment. • Results can support decision and policy making. • Trade-offs between different criteria identified.

Influence of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi (AMF) Inoculation on Growth and Mycorrhizal Dependency of (<i>Lens culinaris</i> L.) Varieties

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are soil fungi, obligate biotrophic fungi and form the most common mutualistic symbiosis in nature: the arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM). This association occurs on the roots of most plants, promoting improvements in plant growth and development. The present study was aimed to investigate the effect of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (Glomus aggergatums, Glomus fasciculatum, Glomus mosseae and Sclerocystis niger) inoculation on growth and mycorrhizal dependency of Lens culinaris L. varieties. The experiment was carried out under natural condition with two treatments (inoculated and control) in triplicates. Inoculation of lentil plants with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi resulted a significant increase in various plant growth parameters compared to plants without inoculation. In addition, fungal inoculation significantly increased mycorrhizal dependency as compared to un-inoculated plants. It is concluded that fungal inoculation improve plant growth parameters under phosphorous deficient soil.

Bacterial symbionts use a type VI secretion system to eliminate competitors in their natural host

Intraspecific competition describes the negative interaction that occurs when different populations of the same species attempt to fill the same niche. Such competition is predicted to occur among host-associated bacteria but has been challenging to study in natural biological systems. Although many bioluminescent Vibrio fischeri strains exist in seawater, only a few strains are found in the light-organ crypts of an individual wild-caught Euprymna scolopes squid, suggesting a possible role for intraspecific competition during early colonization. Using a culture-based assay to investigate the interactions of different V. fischeri strains, we found "lethal" and "nonlethal" isolates that could kill or not kill the well-studied light-organ isolate ES114, respectively. The killing phenotype of these lethal strains required a type VI secretion system (T6SS) encoded in a 50-kb genomic island. Multiple lethal and nonlethal strains could be cultured from the light organs of individual wild-caught adult squid. Although lethal strains eliminate nonlethal strains in vitro, two lethal strains could coexist in interspersed microcolonies that formed in a T6SS-dependent manner. This coexistence was destabilized upon physical mixing, resulting in one lethal strain consistently eliminating the other. When juvenile squid were coinoculated with lethal and nonlethal strains, they occupied different crypts, yet they were observed to coexist within crypts when T6SS function was disrupted. These findings, using a combination of natural isolates and experimental approaches in vitro and in the animal host, reveal the importance of T6SS in spatially separating strains during the establishment of host colonization in a natural symbiosis.

産学民連携による森林保全のための「自然共生型」産業の確立と実践

産学民連携による森林保全のための「自然共生型」産業の確立と実践

Biosphere compatibility - a non-controlled paradigm of security of urbanized (city) environment

The analysis of development projects and reconstruction safe urban environment adopted in recent years, the General plans of the cities of Central Russia from the position of the biosphere compatible technologies. The analysis is based on the fundamental principles of transformation of the city into biosphere compatible and developing the person. It is shown that all the problems of the modern city are between the two extremes – the destruction of nature and degradation of human development level. The algorithm of analysis of master plans and development programs of the city with the quantitative assessment of conceptual bases of formation of safe and comfortable urban environment and approaches to the modelling and forecasting of socio-bio-technosphere in the context of modern challenges and the dynamics of changes in anthropogenic and natural landscapes. It is shown that identified in the draft master plans of the individual cities of Russia the reconstruction of the building of urban infrastructure are not backed by real programs of self-development of their territories. In the doctrine of urban renewal is not the main – the creation of conditions and mechanisms for symbiotic creative development of the city and of man is based on the duality of the problem "man and biosphere". Evidence-based principles for the transformation of the city in biospherically and development of man in the absence of mechanisms for their implementation in real life, in the most part manifests itself negatively. The principle of the symbiosis of city and nature "biosphere compatibility of the city" is uncontested for human survival, and the principle of satisfaction of human needs, including the enforcement of city application functions in any size city or settlement is a priority for human development as an intellectual community.

Water-Born Micro-Cities: Bringing the Great Lakes Closer to Natural Symbiosis with Eco-Based Design

Through design-based research, we investigate how a water-borne micro-city can participate in ecological repair that also supports healthy, human life by removing harmful algae from the water and utilizing it as a supply resource for energy. In this proposed scenario, urbanism becomes the active component in prevention of toxic algae blooms. By bringing together scientific research with research from medicine, design, history and social science, we begin to animate design strategies that promote local and regional resiliency within the Great Lakes. These hypothetical designs, while focusing on algae within the Great Lakes, can provide a feasible prototype for other coastal regions around the world. The priorities of this project are relatable to all coastal-adjacent settlements and the pending depletion of resources that will jeopardize human life.

Natural Farming: Eco-Friendly and Sustainable?

Healthy soil is the foundation upon which sustainable agriculture is built. Farming practices differ mainly based on soil inputs and crop protection measures. In conventional chemical farming practice, indiscriminate use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides destroy the beneficial soil micro flora change the soil nature and also contribute to the high crop production cost. Heavy metals from the polluted soil may enter the food chain in significant amounts and show adverse health effects. The essence of natural farming is to minimize the external inputs to the farm land, and nurture the soil fertility. It was shown that enrichment of soil occurs through propagation of beneficial soil microbes. It encourages the natural symbiosis of soil micro flora and crop plants. Mulching can maximizes the moisture content in the soil, forms the cover for the earthworms and minimizes the weed propagation. This paper reviews the concepts of natural farming in the context of its eco-friendly nature and sustainability.

Phenotypic and Physiological Characterization of the Epibiotic Interaction Between TM7x and Its Basibiont Actinomyces.

Despite many examples of obligate epibiotic symbiosis (one organism living on the surface of another) in nature, such an interaction has rarely been observed between two bacteria. Here, we further characterize a newly reported interaction between a human oral obligate parasitic bacterium TM7x (cultivated member of Candidatus Saccharimonas formerly Candidate Phylum TM7), and its basibiont Actinomyces odontolyticus species (XH001), providing a model system to study epiparasitic symbiosis in the domain Bacteria. Detailed microscopic studies indicate that both partners display extensive morphological changes during symbiotic growth. XH001 cells manifested as short rods in monoculture, but displayed elongated and hyphal morphology when physically associated with TM7x. Interestingly, these dramatic morphological changes in XH001 were also induced in oxygen-depleted conditions, even in the absence of TM7x. Targeted quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) analyses revealed that both the physical association with TM7x as well as oxygen depletion triggered up-regulation of key stress response genes in XH001, and in combination, these conditions act in an additive manner. TM7x and XH001 co-exist with relatively uniform cell morphologies under nutrient-replete conditions. However, upon nutrient depletion, TM7x-associated XH001 displayed a variety of cell morphologies, including swollen cell body, clubbed-ends, and even cell lysis, and a large portion of TM7x cells transformed from ultrasmall cocci into elongated cells. Our study demonstrates a highly dynamic interaction between epibiont TM7x and its basibiont XH001 in response to physical association or environmental cues such as oxygen level and nutritional status, as reflected by their morphological and physiological changes during symbiotic growth.

Amphidinolide P from the Brazilian octocoral Stragulum bicolor

Dinoflagellates are an important source of unique bioactive secondary metabolites. Symbiotic species, commonly named zooxanthellae, transfer most of their photosynthetically fixed carbon to their host. The mutualistic relationship provides the organic metabolites used for energy production but there are very few reports of the role of the dinoflagellates in the production of secondary metabolites in the symbiotic association. Corals and other related cnidarians are the most well-known animals containing symbiotic dinoflagellates. In the present paper we describe the isolation of amphidinolide P (1) from the octocoral Stragulum bicolor and its prey, the nudibranch Marionia limceana, collected off the coasts of Fortaleza (Ceará, Brazil). The coral extracts also contained 3-O-methyl derivative (2) of amphidinolide P, together with minor compounds still under investigation. Amphidinolides have been so far reported only in laboratory cultures of Amphidinium sp., thus compounds 1 and 2 represents the first identification of these polyketides in invertebrates. The finding proves the possibility to isolate amphidinolides from a natural symbiosis, enabling further biological and biotechnological studies.

Global distribution and vertical patterns of a prymnesiophyte-cyanobacteria obligate symbiosis.

A marine symbiosis has been recently discovered between prymnesiophyte species and the unicellular diazotrophic cyanobacterium UCYN-A. At least two different UCYN-A phylotypes exist, the clade UCYN-A1 in symbiosis with an uncultured small prymnesiophyte and the clade UCYN-A2 in symbiosis with the larger Braarudosphaera bigelowii. We targeted the prymnesiophyte-UCYN-A1 symbiosis by double CARD-FISH (catalyzed reporter deposition-fluorescence in situ hybridization) and analyzed its abundance in surface samples from the MALASPINA circumnavigation expedition. Our use of a specific probe for the prymnesiophyte partner allowed us to verify that this algal species virtually always carried the UCYN-A symbiont, indicating that the association was also obligate for the host. The prymnesiophyte-UCYN-A1 symbiosis was detected in all ocean basins, displaying a patchy distribution with abundances (up to 500 cells ml(-1)) that could vary orders of magnitude. Additional vertical profiles taken at the NE Atlantic showed that this symbiosis occupied the upper water column and disappeared towards the Deep Chlorophyll Maximum, where the biomass of the prymnesiophyte assemblage peaked. Moreover, sequences of both prymnesiophyte partners were searched within a large 18S rDNA metabarcoding data set from the Tara-Oceans expedition around the world. This sequence-based analysis supported the patchy distribution of the UCYN-A1 host observed by CARD-FISH and highlighted an unexpected homogeneous distribution (at low relative abundance) of B. bigelowii in the open ocean. Our results demonstrate that partners are always in symbiosis in nature and show contrasted ecological patterns of the two related lineages.

Tripartite mutualism: facilitation or trade-offs between rhizobial and mycorrhizal symbionts of legume hosts.

• Multiple mutualist effects (MMEs) are common in nature, yet we lack a predictive understanding of how two mutualists on the same host will influence each other and whether these effects will be positive or negative. Leguminous plants maintain root symbioses with two nutritional mutualists: rhizobia that fix atmospheric nitrogen and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) that increase phosphorus uptake. Both symbionts receive plant carbon, and host genetic networks that regulate colonization are partially shared by both symbioses; whether these factors generate trade-offs or facilitation between rhizobial and AMF symbionts of legumes is not well known.• We evaluated host allocation to each symbiont in three settings. First, in situ in a remnant prairie, then in a greenhouse experiment with multiple plant populations, and finally under manipulated rhizobium densities in the greenhouse.• In the remnant prairie, rhizobium nodule number and colonization of AMF were positively correlated, and plants with increased nodule number had higher fitness in the field, generating indirect selection on the colonization of AMF. In the greenhouse experiment, allocation to each symbiont was genetically variable among populations, with some suggestion that rhizobium and AMF colonization are positively genetically correlated. Finally, increasing the number of rhizobia in the soil decreased AMF colonization.• Our results suggest that trade-offs between plant colonization by rhizobia and AMF are context dependent and might not be common under field conditions, but that physiological and/or genetic drivers couple these two symbioses in nature.